27 April 2011

Sympathy for Delicious

A cautionary tale against mixing church and rock n' roll, Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut, Sympathy for Delicious, concerns paraplegic DJ Delicious Dean (Christopher Thornton, who also wrote the screenplay and has a broken back in real life), gifted not just in his legendary scratching skills but in his divine healing abilities—a single touch can cure anything from gout to blindness. With hands like those, who needs legs? Still, pity the poor, angst-ridden Dean: he's in a wheelchair, but mean club owners don't sympathize; he's living out of his car, but people steal his shit. And his curative touch, which he doesn't even want, comes with a cruel cosmic catch: he cannot heal himself.

Sympathy was written by an actor, and directed by another, though practitioners of that craft are not typically known for their storytelling skills. (Or, apparently, for the ability to rent a tripod...)